Environment or Coding Delima???

[jdonalds]

I'll try to kept the story to a minimum with as much detail as possible. We are currently operating a job management system developed using VB 6 with out support from the vendor and or access to the source code, they have since closed their doors.

As part of this development, there was a "filereader/interface" program that handled data between this system and our ERP. One day this program began failing on the inbound "parts" file, indicating an overflow error. Luckily this particular data as feed into the job management system is not critical, however, it causes the automatic timing of the program to fail and requires manual intervention for it to proceed.

Once the intervention takes place (hitting ok on the error) it proceeds to handle the other four inbound files (placed in the same directory by the ERP) and also generates the two outbound files to the ERP successfully.

The program had been running successfully for more than two years. The problem I'm having is determing if it has something to do with the environmenr or server that everything resides on or a programming issue. The unfortunate thing is that whether the inbound file exists, exists with data or exists without data, I still get the same "overflow" error.

Any insights as to what might be happening outside the programming (which I cannot fix without the code) that I may be causing my delima?

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[johnwm]

Although this is not really a VB6 question, it seems unlikely that a programming 'fault' has appeared after 2 years successful running.

I would first check that no upadates or enhancements (or any other changes) were made to your ERP system, and then see if your server software has had updates.

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[jdonalds]

Appreciate the response, I can confirm that no updates where made to the ERP package or any other server software updates including windows updates. Those are completed at the end of each month manually. This all begin July 18th.

The other peculiar piece of the puzzle is that if the inbound file (text file) is generated manually, it fails, likewise if the file does not exist in the directory. In the case of the other inbound files if they do not exist when the filereader runs, it does not error out.

Thanks again.

 

[abaldwin]

Is it giving an error when it fails? My theory is that in the code a variable used for something like the order number was declared as a type that has reached its bounds. For instance the order was created as an integer and you have surpassed the ability for it to handle that.

I would also look at the 4 sheets that work and compare it to the one that does not. Seems like the only other thing that could have changeed is the data being processed. Maybe you ahve some ' or "" now apearing in the data that were not previously ther.

Just guessing of course because your core problem is the reliance on unsupported, unchangable, and unmaintainable (I know these are not real words but you get the drift) software.

Andy Baldwin

"Testing is the most overlooked programming language on the books!"

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Find out how to get great answers FAQ219-2884.

 

[jdonalds]

Correct an overflow error typically indicates that the data being plugged into the defined variable is either to large or does not match. The data appears no different than previous files that have been processes correctly.

To my other points, if the file exists with no data in it, meaning there were no changes to the inventory file since the previous run, then it fails and gives me the same error. Thanks for the response, though I don't believe this to be my problem.

Anyone else?

 

[abaldwin]

Once again. If it works on 4 of the sheets and fails on one I would take a hard look at the data in the failing sheet. One of the number fields is outside the bounds of an integer whereas the others are not. Without seeing the data that fails and what passes (and if it is a lot I am sure we dont want to see scrolling screens of data here), I would have to say that one of the fields has values outside whatever they declared their variable.


Start with numbers in the failing data and know that
the valid range of an Integer variable is -2147483648 through +2147483647.

Andy Baldwin

"Testing is the most overlooked programming language on the books!"

Ask a great question, get a great answer. Ask a vague question, get a vague answer.
Find out how to get great answers FAQ219-2884.